Iranian deception: what the IAEA did not address
Fox News, November 20, 2007
Alireza Jafarzadeh
On November 15, the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) issued its report
about the latest status of Iran's nuclear program. Since the
publication of the report, both Tehran and its critics are
claiming victory. Tehran is using the report to claim that
its nuclear program is a peaceful one, and critics have
relied on the report saying that it is further indication
that Tehran has not complied with the United Nations
Security Council resolutions, has continued its uranium
enrichment and deserves further punishment.
What is missing from the report, among other issues, is the
role of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp which has been
running a secret nuclear weapons program in parallel to the
nuclear energy program run by the Atomic Energy Organization
of Iran (AEOI).
According to paragraph 10 of the IAEA report, "In response
to the Agency’s enquiry as to whether there was any military
involvement in the program; Iran has stated that no
institution other than the AEOI was involved in the decision
making process or in the implementation of the centrifuge
enrichment program."
This is an absolute lie. The centrifuge program has been and
continues to be under the control of the IRGC since the
beginning. As I elaborated in my previous column, "Islamic
Revolutionary Guards Corps: Chief Proliferators of Weapons
of Mass Destruction," in 1983, the IRGC initiated Tehran's
nuclear research and development program at the height of
the Iran-Iraq war.
In 1987, the notorious Pakistani nuclear scientist AQ Khan,
in his secret trip to Iran, met with senior commanders of
the IRGC to assist Tehran in the development of its nuclear
bomb.
IRGC Brig. Gen. Ali Hossein-Tash oversaw the nuclear weapons
program of Iran. He was until 2005, the deputy Defense
Minister and is now a member of the Supreme National
Security Council. Former chief nuclear negotiator, Hassan
Rowhani, in his little-publicized farewell letter thanked
Brig. Gen. Hossein-Tash, among others, for his role in the
nuclear program.
The nuclear program is now overseen by IRGC Brig. Gen. Ahmad
Vahidi. Vahidi, the former commander of the notorious Qods
Force designated by the U.S. government as a terrorist
entity, is also the deputy Defense Minister, and one of five
terrorists whose warrants of arrest were confirmed by the
Interpol for the 1993 bombing of the Jewish Community Center
in Argentina where nearly 90 people were killed.
In his report, the IAEA Director General closes his eyes on
the military involvement in Tehran's nuclear program and
takes Tehran's claims at face value. Any military
involvement is a red flag by any standard; A clear
indication that the program is for military purposes and not
for civilian use.
In paragraph 12 of the report, Tehran's claims are stated
with no refutation, that the centrifuge program between 1987
and 1993 was only run by the AEOI. "Iran has also stated
that during this period, the R&D work was conducted only by
the AEOI, without the support of universities or the Physics
Research Centre (PHRC)." Sheer lie!
To the contrary, various universities were used by the IRGC
since 1985. They included Sharif University of Technology,
Amir Kabir, Tehran, Beheshti, Shiraz, and Science and
Industry universities which were all used by the IRGC. As I
revealed in The Iran Threat: President Ahmadinejad and the
Coming Nuclear Crisis (Palgrave: 2007), in mid-1980s, Maj.
Gen. Mohsen Rezai, at the time in command of the IRGC, had
approached a number of expert scholars, asking them to help
the regime get the bomb, which it needed, as it does now, to
dominate the region.
In addition, the IRGC-run Imam Hussein and Malek Ashtar
military universities are heavily involved in the nuclear
weapons program, as Iran's main opposition, the National
Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) divulged. NCRI's past
revelations have been proven accurate. Two senior nuclear
scientists and IRGC officers, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh and
Fereydoon Abbassi oversee the nuclear R&D program at Imam
Hussein University, now one of the most advanced in the
country..
By 2003, the IRGC had up to 400 nuclear experts and
scientists who were primarily transferred from the Atomic
Energy Organization of Iran to the Defense Ministry.
Paragraph 17 of the IAEA report noted, "Iran stated that,
during the period 1993 to 1999, it was still experiencing
difficulty in producing components for P-1 centrifuges and
manufacturing reliable P-1 centrifuges. It said that only
limited human resources were devoted to the project until
1997 and that, around 1998, additional theoretical and
experimental studies were initiated at the Amir Khabir [Kabir]
University." This, too, is a myth.
Various university and research resources have been
allocated to the centrifuge program during the same period.
Tehran intends to minimize the scope of its program and the
depth of its deception to prevent the international
community from further probe.
Even though the IAEA concedes in paragraph 18 that the
military has been involved in the centrifuge program, it
refrains from pursuing other leads, refuses to question why
the military is involved in a supposedly nuclear energy
program, and has failed to inspect the military sites
revealed by the main Iranian opposition since 2003.
"Iran has provided names, locations and activities of the
workshops involved in the domestic production of centrifuge
components, most of which are owned by military industrial
organizations," the report says. According to the NCRI,
Jafar Mohammadi, a key expert in the manufacture of the
centrifuges at the Defense Industry Organization (DIO), was
later transferred to the AEOI to oversee the centrifuge
program in Natanz uranium enrichment facility. He headed a
front company, Farayand Technic, exposed by the NCRI in
2002. Ali Karimi, another DIO expert was also transferred to
AEOI, now involved with the centrifuge program. This clearly
shows that Tehran has been using the AEOI to facilitate the
nuclear weapons program.
In paragraph 25, the IAEA report noted, "The Agency received
a copy of the 15-page document describing the procedures for
the reduction of UF6 to uranium metal and casting it into
hemispheres. Iran has reiterated that this document was
received along with the P-1 centrifuge documentation in
1987." This corroborates with other information provided by
the NCRI indicating that the IRGC waged an extensive effort
in 1987 to get the nuclear bomb, as it was clearly losing
momentum in the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988).
This was also confirmed in a letter in 1988 by Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini, which contained a laundry list of what
the military commanders needed for carrying on the war
against Iraq. It quoted the IRGC supreme commander as saying
that within five years Iran would need laser-guided and
nuclear weapons to win the war.
If the IAEA continues to close its eyes on the evidence
regarding the Iranian regime's military involvement with the
nuclear program, it would be buying Tehran the precious time
it desperately needs, paving the way for the religious
fascists ruling Iran to get the bomb.
Alireza Jafarzadeh is a FOX News Channel Foreign Affairs
Analyst and the author of
"The Iran Threat: President Ahmadinejad and the Coming
Nuclear Crisis" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007).
Jafarzadeh has revealed Iran's terrorist network in Iraq and
its terror training camps since 2003. He first disclosed the
existence of the Natanz uranium enrichment facility and the
Arak heavy water facility in August 2002.
Prior to becoming a contributor for FOX, and until August
2003, Jafarzadeh acted for a dozen years as the chief
congressional liaison and media spokesman for the U.S.
representative office of Iran's parliament in exile, the
National Council of Resistance of Iran.
